Inside Valley – Inside Meta's first retail store
Meta opens its first physical store in the Silicon Valley – a software giant turns hardware company.
In this episode of Inside Valley I visit Meta’s first physical store – the company formerly known as Facebook, which is now making a major push into hardware. The store sits just outside Meta’s main campus in Burlingame, a few minutes from San Francisco.
What is at stake
Meta opens its first own retail store on 9 May 2022. It is a novelty for a company whose entire business was built on software, advertising and algorithms. In just 140 square metres, Meta shows what its hardware strategy looks like: the Quest 2 VR headset, the Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses developed with the Italian eyewear maker, and the Portal video terminal for video calls in the living room. Each device is designed to signal Meta’s transition from social network operator to metaverse outfitter.
Why the physical store matters
Virtual reality is hard to sell through screenshots. Anyone who puts on the Quest 2 understands within seconds what it can do – without the headset on your head, the experience stays abstract. Meta knows this: smart glasses, VR headsets and haptic devices need hands-on experiences in the real world to drive sales. Apple showed how powerfully brand loyalty and product experience are connected through its stores. Meta is trying to replicate that model on a smaller scale.
What the visit reveals
In the store you can not only try the products but buy them. Staff help with account setup, installing apps, and getting started with games such as Beat Saber or meditation apps. I tested the Quest 2 there – for someone experiencing VR for the first time, it is a genuine aha moment. At the same time the store makes clear that Meta needs patience: the mass market for these devices is not yet there, and prices and ease of use are not yet fully consumer-ready.
What could follow
Whether Meta’s hardware bet pays off is an open question. The company invests more than ten billion dollars each year in its Reality Labs division – and reports billion-dollar losses on VR and AR products. The store is a small test, not a broad rollout. But it is a signal: Meta believes the next big technology leap will not happen in the news feed but in the physical world, where glasses and devices connect software with people. Whether that turns out to be true will become clear in the years ahead.